Pompeii, Earthquakes, and a Happily Ever After
I first met my husband, Austin, on Upward November 7, 2020. We were just starting to come out of a global pandemic so I didn't have much hope that I would truly find someone during this time. My now-husband proved me wrong! Turns out my husband had felt the same way. His cousin had convinced him to try an online site to find someone. Thank goodness she did! Our first date was to the Orlando Science Center to see their traveling Pompeii exhibit. He was so shy and hardly said a word to me for the first half hour. I thought my personality was too much for him. Then, when we came across a broken sundial, he leaned over to me and went, “Do you think they’ll give us a discount since it’s broken?” I turned to him in both shock and amusement. “Maybe. But it’s got to go in my car since it would never fit in yours!” We both started dying laughing in the middle of the exhibit. It was at that moment that I knew the date was going well. Fast forward to about an hour in, we had finished the exhibit and had moved on to another section of the center where there was an earthquake machine, paper airplane launcher, and more. He jumped onto this earthquake machine, pressed the button, and started dancing the funniest dance I had ever seen. As I stood there watching and laughing I heard a voice tell me, “he is the one.” I trusted that voice the moment I heard it. It was loud but soft, confident yet gentle. I knew, at the moment, that the voice I heard was right. Turns out my husband had that same experience later on when I got scared by a snake in a habitat I didn’t see and started running! Fast forward to the end of our date. We went to this quaint little ice cream shop in Orlando. It was there that we both knew we were going to be in it for the long haul. Fast forward to April of 2021. He took me to one of his favorite places: Bok Tower Gardens. He took me to the front of the koi pond, pulled out a music box, and asked me to marry him. Little did I know he had gotten my parent’s permission on a trip back to my hometown in February. They both knew he was the one they had been praying I would find and agreed. On the way to go get celebratory dinner, I noticed the scene on the box: Napoli. In the background was an erupting amount of Vesuvius. The very same volcano that wiped out Pompeii in 79AD. That further confirmed that everything was falling into place according to God’s plan. We were married fall of 2021. He got my ring had a hidden Cinderella’s Carriage and his, keeping with the Pompeii theme, was made of volcanic rock taken from Mount Vesuvius. Almost 3 years later we welcomed our firstborn, a son, into our home. We are ecstatic! If it wasn’t for us finding Upward, a global pandemic, his cousin’s suggestion, a mutual love of history, and God’s guidance, we would not have the amazing life we do now.
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